2008 SCCA Solo Nationals - Dodging Cones

5:30 PM
Once the Sunday practice was finished, I was left feeling a bit depressed and frustrated at the thought of having to drive for two more days on the Heartland Park surface. Most drivers spent the practice slip-sliding around, often spinning out, and more just trying to keep their cars pointed forward than actually working on driving or car setup. The cold temperatures and dirt that swept across the skidpad during the previous day’s rain left the racing surface especially slick. I managed to get three decent runs in, which were only good enough to scrub the stickers off the Hankooks.

September 15
12:00 PM
High noon during a day off from racing at the Solo Nationals can only mean one thing: BBQ lunch at Pat’s Pig on Topeka Boulevard. The restaurant wasn’t difficult to find either, being that it’s about a mile down the road from the event site and there were no less than 30 stickered-up Solo cars on questionable “street-legal” tires parked out front along the curb. Make no mistake, this was the most leisurely part of the day; it was all business after lunch.

At a typical regional Solo event around the United States, a driver will preview the course by walking it, perhaps two to four times. At Topeka, with a Solo National Championship jacket on the line, most drivers spend the entire day walking the course. The format was simple: the East course on the left and the West course on the right. On the first day of competition everyone drives one of the two courses. On the second day, everyone switches sides and drives the remaining course. I was slated to start on the East course on Tuesday, so I walked around the course about 12 times the day before.

5:30 PM
What amazes me most about this event is the fact that it feels like work. Everyone wakes up early to take their cars through tech inspection, walk the course, prepare the car, attend one of the many seminars and do one of the many Solo-related errands that keep a person busy for the entire day. After walking the course for the full day, the business of the night was the Evolution School seminar, where the school’s top-level instructors spent the evening giving a presentation on the course layouts. Driving lines, braking points, visual references and vehicle dynamics and how they pertain to the upcoming courses for Nationals were all discussed, followed by a Q&A session from the audience. Remember that the courses setup for competition for the week have never been driven before, by anyone, so theoretical discussion and analyzing about the courses is about all one can do to have the best chance.

September 16
6:00 AM
I feel like I’m setting a record for the number of times in which one can wake up before the sun rises! This day is for good reason, however, as it’s the first day of competition for me and the Integra Type-R in D-Stock. I arrived at the site extra early to walk the course a couple more times before diving in head first for the competition runs.

The starting grid for D-Stock was about as I expected—mostly all Integra Type-Rs making up the 40-car field, with a few Cobalts, Audi TT and BMW 135 racers thrown in the mix. Given the nature of the Stock class Solo rules—with limits on alignment and wheel width—naturally, some cars will be favored over others, and that has long been the reputation Solo has. Buying “the car for the class” isn’t just ideal, it’s necessary to win. The B-Stock grid of more than 40 cars is almost entirely comprised of Mazda RX-8s. Even in the Street Prepared categories, Mazda Miatas are the car of choice in C-Street Prepared, while the Lancer Evolution and Subaru STi are the top-two picks for B-Street Prepared. Walking through the grids on the first day of competition was interesting, but a little disappointing at times because it seemed more like spec-class racing than anything else.